Lorule Is Hyrule’s Shadow Realm In The Legend Of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

One of the core gameplay components from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past was the existence of the dark world. It was a twisted form of Hyrule that reflected the evil heart of Ganon and his desires, and really stood out as a defining feature for the early SNES title. Now the Hyrule from A Link to the Past is back on the 3DS, but the Dark World got a new, decidedly cheesier, name.

As was previously revealed, Link can turn into a chalk drawing and become a 2D figure on the walls of his surroundings. At certain areas, he can even travel through the walls and come out in an alternate form of Hyrule called Lorule. (Get it?). This alternate world even has a princess named Hilda that looks like exactly like Zelda, except that she has black hair.

As for the rest of the trailer, Nintendo lays the nostalgia on thick. The three magic pendants, now bearing the symbols of the three goddesses, make a comeback as Link removes the Master Sword from its resting place in the Lost Woods. It even uses the same classic opening jingle from the SNES classic accompanied by a new orchestral opening song.

What’s new is that there appears to be a new villain this time around that bears no resemblance to Ganon or Ganondorf. At the time of A Link to the Past, Ganondorf had lost what remained of his humanity and fully transformed into the pig creature we all know as Ganon. He was able to invade Hyrule by possessing the wizard Agahnim so perhaps the new villain in A Link Between Worlds is in a similar situation.